Pineapple sizing and recoring

ABSTRACT

Pineapples are prepared for slicing by precoring, contour peeling, sizing in a rotating sizing knife and centering pin while slitting. The blanket, followed by recoring externally of the sizing knife at the sizing knife station. The blanket is turned over eye side up and its edges are trimmed. An automatic programming air system cycles the mechanism.

United States Patent [191 Vadas PINEAPPLE SIZING AND RECORING [75] Inventor: Leslie Vadas, Los Gatos, Calif.

[73] Assignee: FMC Corporation, San Jose, Calif.

[22] Filed: Apr. 27, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 355,258

[52] US. Cl. 99/544, 99/644 [51] Int. Cl A23n 3/12 [58] Field of Search 99/544, 538-543,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,001.93l 8/l9ll Cookson 99/589 1.350.096 8/!920 Fisher.................... 99/589 l,444.535 2/l923 Barter 99/589 BLANKET CONVEYOR [451 Apr. 1, 1975 1,460,559 7/1923 Opperman 99/590 3,232,328 2/1966 Aubrey et al. 99/542 3,638,696 2/1972 Lovelzlrld 99/59l Primary Examiner.lohn W. Huckert Assistant Examiner-Charles Gorenstein Attorney, Agent, or FirmC. E. Tripp [57] ABSTRACT Pineapples are prepared for slicing by precoring, contour peeling, sizing in a rotating sizing knife and centering pin while slitting. The blanket, followed by recoring externally of the sizing knife at the sizing knife station. The blanket is turned over eye side up and its edges are trimmed. An automatic programming air system cycles the mechanism.

14 Claims, 43 Drawing Figures SIZE AND --q nlscmmee cvunuen IURRET OSCILLATING CYLINDER ClUF SHEET PATENTED 1 I975 Jules EYES T;

FULL SLICES A 3; T v

CORE SLEEVE) CONTOUR PEELED BUTT TRIM ROTATING SIZER ERADICATEO JUICE CROWN TRIM CONTOUR PEEL JUICE CELL WAKENING CORE HOLE BuTT TRIM PUSH ER PATEHTEUAPR 149:5 3.874.280

SHEET E23? 20 IE I [3 E as fi $5223 ROTATING 3O SIZER a SUPPORT P p V a I 1 x A use 52. i!! 55 28 A 7 ,vv. w y wiflA-zll :1 1 34 PEELED TRANSFER l 7 JE- LAN KT;CQSH a l- 29 k If; SLITTER B CORE SLEEVE (CUSH'ONED) l V i i l h s 4 EJECTOR ..l

DER ROTATING UNRELIEVED 48 RELIEVED RE-CO TUBE 57 ROTATING SIZER EJ ECTOR MILL MILL

JUICE PATENTED APR 1 SHEEJ 03 SF 20 4-H- -U m H H hmOmmDm mun-21:0 umouum PATEN TED APR 1 SHEET 0'4 0F 20 PHENTEU APR 1 5 SHEET 050? 20 PATENTEU APR 1 I975 SHEET D7UF 2O PATENTEB APR 1 13 SHEET GBOF 2O H a flm mH on mm mm mnfin /wm IWJENTEU 1 5 SHEET OSUF 2O PATENTEU APR 1 5 SHEET 1UUF2O U-Wu BH-F PJJENTEUAPR H575 3,874,280

sum 110F 20 m Esm mm mm mm l mm umoumm 185 0 Ha 53:80 wEEm G Z'IJENTEB 1 SHEET 12 OF 20 W-WH -IN-HP-HI FUENTES APR 1 lg'75 SHEET 130F 20 PATENTED APR 1 I975 SHEET 1HUF2O mmOowm UmU IHHIF PATEHTEQ APR 1 i375 SHEET lBUF 20 mmu mHlP .22 ESE Em 1090 6 wN w PATENTEU APR 1 I975 SHEET 17M 20 NLW UHLHI SHEET omtim mmu m-Hnlm-wl 

1. Apparatus for processing contour peeled pineapple spheroids that have been precored to leave an unmutilated sleeve of core materIal; said apparatus comprising a turret having a transfer pin for supporting the spheroid by its precore running along the lower edge of said inspection conveyor, said edge trimming means comprising a knife disposed between said blanket guide rail and the inspection conveyor.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising a rotary drum at said sizing knife for receiving the slit blanket after the sizing operation is completed, and a belt conveyor for receiving a blanket from said drum.
 3. The apparatus of claim 2, comprising a trim knife for trimming the butt edge from the blanket and a trim knife for trimming the crown edge from the blanket.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein said blanket conveyor is inclined downward from the horizontal, said conveyor including an untrimmed edge gauge guide disposed along the lower edge of said conveyor surface, one of said blanket trim knives being at said untrimmed edge gauge guide, and a trimmed blanket edge guide downstream of said untrimmed edge guide.
 5. The apparatus of claim 4, comprising means for vibrating the upper surface of said blanket conveyor to urge the blanket against said edge guides.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising means for reducing the speed of said sizing knife as the sized cylinder is ejected after sizing operation.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising means for reducing the speed of said sizing knife from about 700 rpm while it is cutting the cylinder hole and a larger diameter recoring tube having a sharpened end, a cylindrical sizing knife having a sharpened end for cutting a cylinder from the peeled spheroid, means for rotating said sizing knife, an internal support pin inside the sizing knife and aligned with the sizing knife axis for fitting into said precore hole, means for indexing said turret to axially align said transfer and support pins, means for pushing a spheroid on said transfer pin into and over said rotating sizing knife with its precore hole sliding over said support pin to cut the spheroid into a cylinder and a blanket, a slitter knife extending into the blanket for preventing rotation of the spheroid during sizing, means for indexing said turret to axially align the recoring tube with said sizing knife support pin, means for pushing the sized cylinder out of said sizing knife and over said recoring tube to remove the core sleeve, means for again indexing the turret to align the transfer and support pins, and means for removing the recored, sized cylinder from said recoring tube.
 8. The apparatus of claim 1 comprising means for mounting said recore tube so that it does not rotate and means for causing said sizing knife and internal support to rotate together to turn the sized cylinder as it is pushed out of said sizing knife and over the recore tube.
 9. The apparatus of claim 8, comprising means for slowing down the rotational speed of said sizing knife as the sized cylinder is pushed out of said sizing knife for reducing the disruptive effect of centrifugal force on the sized cylinder.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wehrein said means for pushing the spheroid into and over said rotating sizing tube comprises a rubber-like pad having an annular groove that receives the sharpened end of the sizing knife at the end of the sizing operation.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said means for pushing the sized cylinder out of said sizing knife comprises a rubber-like pad having an annular groove that receives the sharpened end of the recoring tube at the end of the recoring operation.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said recore tube is internally sharpened at its end and is formed to provide a minimum internal diameter portion that extends a short distance in from the sharpened end, said recore tube having a larger internal diameter portion extending from said minimum diameter portion to provide a relieved body portion for accommodating sliding of the core sleeve through the recore tube.
 13. Apparatus for processing precored and contour peeled pineApple spheroids of the type comprising a rotating cylindrical sizing knife, means for forcing a precored spheroid into and over said sizing knife to form a sized cylinder and a blanket, means for slitting the blanket during sizing, and means for ejecating the sized cylinder from the sizing knife; the improvement wherein said blanket slitting means comprises a single slitting knife for producing a one-piece blanket, first conveying means for removing the blanket from the sizing knife with the contour peeled side of the blanket facing down, second conveying means for reversing the blanket while conveying it from said first conveying means so that the contour peeled side of the blanket is facing up, a power driven inspection conveyor for receiving the blanket from said second conveying means with the contour peeled side facing up, and means for trimming side edges of the blanket so that the contour peeled side of a trimmed blanket can be inspected on the inspection conveyor.
 14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherien said inspection conveyor runs in a generally horizontal direction but is laterally inclined, a blanket guide rail spaced from but to about 200 - 100 rpm while the sized cylinder is being pushed out of the sizing knife. 